Georgia fans - what is your opinion of HC Smart so far?

I think he's done fine so far. The cupboard is slightly bare but it's refreshing to see things shaken up.

Go dawgs woof woof woof woof

I think the staleness of Richt is what had program so demoralized. With Kirby as HC, I don't think there's a game that they feel they will definitely lose in. I think they'll play tougher under Smart than they did towards the end of Richt's tenure.

It'll be a close game with Ole Miss but I think Ole Miss has a bit more depth and will therefore win.

The Dawgs showed a lot of chemistry as they played from behind against Mizzou. Kirby will get them humming. Ole Miss may get them because it's still early in the season and the Bears are real good, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Dawgs pull out a win.

One thing I will say is he finds ways to win and his team does not give up, unlike another coach I can think of. Just wait untill he starts getting his own players. Kirby is already beating Butch and Mccelwain in recruiting.

I'll make a point to watch the game this Saturday. Unfortunately I've had to work the first three weeks of the season so far and this is my first Saturday off so I've only seen very limited clips of the new UGA team. I have a couple of UGA alums in the family and I was just curious what the current consensus was.

I think it's way too early to tell. He obviously is passionate, but the game against Nicholls was an embarrassment and an atrocious coaching performance all around.

We showed a ton of fight against UNC and Mizzou, but who knows how tough those teams actually are. The road win at Mizzou was nice to see, but our defense got torched. Thankfully we created turnovers to make up the difference.

In order to see how good of a coach Kirby is actually going to be we have to give him time to bring in his own players, and also make up for the abomination of the recruiting class we had in 2013.

quote:

---

way too early to tell

---

This. Happy with what I'm seeing from a development of team identity/character perspective, but there are also some glaring deficiencies that Smart seems unwilling to even try and "work around" for a season. We don't have starting tackles... we have 2 dudes who should be guards and 2 more dudes who should be back up guards most likely. That causes a lot of problems on offense.

Smart and/or Chaney seem to be intent on running the ball up the middle behind them though. To be fair, some of that likely comes from the fact that our best WR talent are really slot guys (IMac and Godwin) or maybe #2 receiver options that are undersized. Getting those guys to block for runs to the outside is obviously not going to be a simple task either.

The UNC and Mizzou wins look pretty good right now, but the eye test works a lot better later in the season and in both games we were down in the second half in games that we were favored in. 5 Turnovers in the Mizzou game looks great but again, offensive woes led to zero points (only count 4 of them since the 5th was the game icer but still). Nothing can excuse what we saw against Nicholls but if that is what it takes to get the team to wake up and realize they're not likely to "out-talent" many teams this year, then so be it. If that becomes any kind of trend, we likely have some problems. At least Richt's "failure to appear" games were generally against real opponents.

quote:

---

time to bring in his own players, and also make up for the abomination of the recruiting class we had in 2013.

---

This also. He's lighting it up on the recruiting trail so far. Want to see this 2017 class get locked down and see what kind of progress he can make with the top tier 18 guys (solidly in the mix for 4 of the top 10 and ~10 of the top 50). UGA was a solid 7-10 program in the nation from a recruiting perspective most years under Richt. That's not bad by any stretch, but over the same stretch good for about 3-5th in the SEC in any given year which corresponds with the good but not great teams. Going to need to recruit at an elite level, *keep* the talented guys on campus and out of trouble, and develop them *while they're there*.

If I'm only grading on what I've seen thus far with the players we have, it's probably a B-/C+. We're not lightyears better at any position group and likely a bit worse at some right now, which is to be expected, thus "average ish". Chaney hire I've still got my jury out on. Have not been thrilled with what I've seen but also hasn't been the complete shitshow anticipated by Hawg fans... we'll see how it plays out I suppose. Defensively, we should find out a lot about this team this week. I expect Ole Miss to burn us some, but if we can minimize the big plays and offset them with some turnovers, I'll be pretty impressed.

Regardless of his "current grade", I still maintain that it was time for a change. We'd seen the best that Richt had to offer us and it just wasn't going to be enough. Ultimately, it looks like the shift may have been best for both programs as Richt is rejuvenated and back to doing what he *should have been doing* at UGA - hands on with the Offense, playcalling, and QB - meanwhile - Kirby has a new energy for what was quickly becoming a very stale football program.

Thanks for the response. Very good points. Hopefully it will be a great rivalry again moving forward once we remove our lame duck AD. Be glad you don't have a clown like JJ captaining your ship at the very least!

Can Kirby beat UF on a consistent basis? I think UGA is 4-26 vs UF in the last 30years

3
+




























Just pistolwhip the frick out of florida. We promise to do the same.